Rozalex Zalpon Zorange Extra Heavy-Duty Hand Cleaner

Rozalex Zalpon Zorange Extra Heavy-Duty Hand Cleaner is a really effective way of shifting post-mechanicing crud, leaves your skin feeling soft and moisturised, and is ridiculously cheap if you buy in bulk.

• Pros: Great for removing the bike grime from your skin, smells really nice, feels good, cheap, no microplastics, vivid orange colour
• Cons: A full pump delivers more than you need, alarming orange colour

I came across Rozalex Zalpon Zorange Extra Heavy-Duty Hand Cleaner when I went looking for a hand cleaner that was more effective than Swarfega and nicer to use. Zalpon Zorange is very good at removing grime, comes in a pump-action container so you're not faffing with a lid every time you need to scrub up, and leaves your hands clean without that slightly-dessicated-by-chemicals feeling of Swarfega. It also smells nice and it's a bright orange colour, which you will either love or find alarmingly radioactive-looking.

After a couple of hours of bike-fettling I set to removing the gunge on my hands with Zalpon Zorange. The texture makes it really rather pleasant and satisfying to use. The cream is silky and smells good thanks to the orange oil, and the roughness of the suspended particles makes you feel like you're really achieving something as you work it into your hands. And you are. I'd been messing about with chains so had on my hands some of that amazingly nasty stuff that accumulates on inner links and jockey wheels. Zalpon Zorange lifted it right off, leaving my hands gleaming and feeling fresh when I rinsed it off.

One of the reasons Zalpon Zorange is so good at getting your hands clean is that it contains pumice. A highly porous volcanic rock, in powdered form pumice basically comprises tiny bits of volcanic glass whose edges are great at abrading the top surface of your skin. It's rather like liquid Emery paper.

Some gritty hand cleaners still use tiny plastic granules to provide their abrasive effect. These microbeads eventually end up in waterways and the ocean where they're a hazard to aquatic life. They're supposed to have been banned from last year, but you'll still find them in Swarfega Orange Hand Cleaner and De-Solv-It Heavy-Duty Beaded Hand Cleaner, among others.

That's one ingredient and one, er uningredient; what else is in Zalpon Zorange? Rozalex managing director Nick Angel says it has high-quality surfactants (detergents to you and me) that break down oils and greases, and natural orange oil which he describes as a 'fantastic natural solvent'. There are also esters to remove things like paint.

Nothing in Zalpon Zorange's ingredients list or material safety data sheet sets off alarm bells. Nick Angel also says Rozalex doesn't use isothiazolinones or parabens as preservatives. The former can cause contact dermatitis in people who are sensitive to it, which you definitely don't want in a hand cleaner, and parabens have a generally bad rep, though the scientific jury is out on just how deserved that is. It can't hurt to be cautious though.

A single pump of the dispenser delivers 26g of Zalpon Zorange, which is a bit excessive; you need about half that unless you've managed to get right up to your elbows in crud.

> Read more road.cc reviews of skincare and embrocation products

My favourite thing about Zalpon Zorange is its sheer value for money. You can get this four-litre tub for under 17 quid from Amazon, so that's about 4p for the roughly 10g you need to get your hands clean. A 300g tube of Zeosoft Heavy Duty Hand Cleaner is seven quid, so that's 23p for 10g. Weldtite Dirtwash hand cleaner comes in at £6 for 500ml or 12p for 10g and Muc-Off Nano-Grit Hand Cleaner is £10 for 500ml or 20p/10g, if you can still find it.

Of course, you're buying far more in one go with Zalpon Zorange. I expect this tub will last me years, and you can get a 10-litre container for £36 if you're running a professional workshop. A one-litre flip-top bottle (£6.99), and a pocket size 250ml bottle (£3.49) are also available.

Verdict

Very effective against bike grime and cheap, even if you don't go silly and buy the big jug